


Moontree Hill

by Discreet



Category: Parahumans Series - Wildbow
Genre: Dorks, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-05
Updated: 2019-01-05
Packaged: 2019-10-05 01:05:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17315165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Discreet/pseuds/Discreet
Summary: Lisa plays some video games with her best (and only) friend who she met online, VD.





	Moontree Hill

Video games. Balm of life, soother of souls, waster of time and the only thing left in this world that kept Lisa sane. 

When you were ducking fireballs on Monday, swamped with superpowered Nazis on Wednesday, and just barely escaping from the heroes on Thursday, sometimes you needed a quiet Friday night inside, just playing video games. Lisa had been planning this night of do-nothing all week. All duties taken care of, all distractions put away. The other Undersiders had gone off to take care of their own business, no risk of them getting in the way. Brian was babysitting his sister, Rachel was at her dog park, Alec was — well, also playing video games, but on _console_ , which if Lisa was honest, didn't really count. 

Nothing was getting between Lisa and video games tonight. She settled into her desk, pajama-clad and swathed in a blanket. To her right was 2-liters of carbonated caffeine, to her left was a plastic tub of bite-sized pretzels, and before Lisa was a monument to electronics, a top-of-the-tinker-line-somewhat-illegal computer with enough CPU brawn to bench press Fort Knox. This monster machine was currently running Lisa's favorite game: Moontree Hill, an indie farming simulator. 

Lisa opened the server browser and connected into game. It was morning in the town of Moontree Hill and Lisa rose from bed. Her game character was a 32-bit version of herself, blonde hair rendered yellow, her eyes, just green pixels. The game allowed a wide variety of wardrobe options, but Lisa was no heathen. She only wore occupation appropriate attire: a plaid shirt, jean overalls and a wide-brimmed straw hat. Two more levels and she could unlock a piece of straw to stick between her teeth. 

Lisa (the name of her character, because why not?) stepped out of the house and surveyed her crops. The fields were sectioned off by type in neat little grids. Eggplants there, ripening nicely, cauliflowers here, just starting to bloom, and the corn fields, the most of the bunch, stretched as far as the eye (screen) could see. 

Lisa (the player) took in a deep satisfied breath. It was good to have digital land. 

It wouldn't do to bask in the agricultural glow forever, though. Couldn't afford to waste those daylight hours after all. Lisa made her way to the corn fields, ready to start picking. 

She was halfway over when she spotted someone amidst the stalks. It was her partner on the farm, VD. VD was one of the few people who actually understood how Moontree Hill was meant to be played. VD's character was a blonde girl with blue eyes and was dressed in a faded red shirt tied at the front, hitched-up jeans and to top it off, she had a piece of straw sticking out between her teeth. Lisa approved of it all. 

Lisa had met VD on a Moontree Hill public server, and though she barely knew anything about her, a mutual respect had quickly formed. The girl could farm. 

The public server eventually collapsed after it was raided by trolls (led by that fuck, Alec), but the girls stuck together. They decided to set up their own private server, and have a farm with just the two of them. 

VD was in the middle of picking corn, but as she saw Lisa approach, she said (typed), "Mornin', partner." 

Lisa liked to imagine all the text with a charming southern twang and she responded, "Mornin' yourself, beautiful." 

"Shucks, you and that silver-tongue." VD turned back to the corn and started picking again. "Don't think you gon' get out of helping out by buttering me up." 

"Wouldn't dream of it," Lisa said. She moved alongside VD and plucked a cob of corn. She glanced over at VD's basket and saw that it was already nearly full. 

"How long you been at it before I woke up?" Lisa asked, but what she meant was "how long have you been playing today?" 

VD stopped picking. "Ah. Well." She shuffled her feet (her character side-stepped from tile to tile.) "I might've been at it for a while." 

"Yeah...?" 

"I might've… not stopped." 

Lisa looked over at VD, "Come again?" 

"Since the last time you were up, I mean." 

Since last night. When Lisa had just barely escaped after dumping paint on a Ward's handshake event at the mall. She had gotten back home exhausted and only gone online to quickly check how things were on the farm. Now that Lisa thought about it, VD had been picking corn then as well. 

Lisa took a deep breath. "You mean to tell me, you've been here for twenty-four hours?" 

VD picked some corn. "It really hasn't felt that long." 

"You didn't sleep?" 

"Too much to do, too little time, eh?" 

Lisa conveyed her disapproval via dots. "..." 

VD shuffled her feet again. "I took a nap, okay?" 

"And have you eaten?" 

"I had some of your apple pie. Delicious, by the way." 

"I meant IRL." 

VD didn't respond for a moment. The imagined southern accents were gone. In a way, Lisa had crossed a line. Broken character and typed those three dreaded letters. In Real Life. 

Eventually, after a long pause, VD spoke, "I had some sandwiches." 

There was no way for Lisa to read VD's facial expressions from the flat sprite or to discern the tone of the other girl's voice from the simple text. That was part of the reason why she liked this video game. The lack of information meant her power had little to work off of and Lisa could just… enjoy. 

But VD's hesitation and choice of words was elementary to interpret. The girl had, for the twenty-four hours, only eaten bread straight out of the bag. 

"Peanut butter sandwiches," VD added. 

The peanut butter had come separately, straight from the jar. Worse, VD had eaten it not with a spoon or even her finger, but a fork. 

Lisa (the person) put her hand to her forehead. She already knew what had happened: VD had broken up with her boyfriend. VD had never actually mentioned a boyfriend, but his existence had been easy to guess over the months that they played together. Random pauses in the middle of a game, not logging on during weekend nights (not tonight, though!), and a total lack of interest in the game's romance minigame. All signs pointed to a girl devoted to her boyfriend — whom she had just broken up with. A decision that was now tearing her apart. 

Lisa sighed. As much as she hated to get involved, VD was her friend. An internet stranger, but more of a friend than anyone she knew in real life. Lisa didn't know if that was sad or not, and shelved figuring that thought out for "never-ever". 

As casually as she could, Lisa typed, "Boy trouble, huh?" 

VD's reply was instant. "How did you know?" 

"It was kind of obvious." It really was, the power usage had been totally unnecessary. 

"Ugh," said VD, "I'm sorry." 

"Don't be. Do you want to talk about it?" 

"Do you actually want to hear it?" 

Lisa considered saying Of course, I'm here for you, but settled for just: "Of course." 

VD paused. The text "VD is typing..." lingered over her head for a long while. Until finally: "It's my boyfriend. My ex, now I guess." 

Lisa waited for her to go on. 

"There was a thing at work yesterday. 

"We work together, by the way. 

"Anyway, we got… kind of pranked at work and we came out looking really stupid. Like, laughing-stock-of-the-company stupid." 

"Oof," Lisa said. 

"Yeah," VD said, "I was pretty upset. 

"Really upset, actually. I wanted to catch the people who pulled the prank, but… he didn't. 

"He tried to tell me it wasn't a big deal. That I shouldn't let it get to me. 

"He just kept telling me to calm down, but that just made me angrier. 

"He wanted to pretend like it never happened. Said it would look better that way. 

"And… ugh. I kinda blew up at him. I said some pretty nasty stuff. And uh… yeah we broke up. 

"Uggggh. Now that I'm reading what I wrote, I feel like such a bitch." 

"Uh, what," Lisa spoke up, "Why should you feel like a bitch?" 

"I mean, it wasn't his fault that we got humiliated." 

"Sure, maybe not," Lisa said, "But that's not the issue. The issue is that he didn't acknowledge how you felt." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I mean you were upset, and rightfully so. Why shouldn't you be angry? Because it doesn't 'look good'? That's bullshit." 

VD didn't say anything, so Lisa went on. "I’m not saying it’s okay to go crazy, but you should be able to feel your feelings without someone telling you to stop. Much less your 'boyfriend'." 

VD still didn't say anything. 

"I mean… that's just my opinion," Lisa added hastily. She had probably gone too far. One of Lisa's many less-than-stellar habits, being a little too nosy, saying a little too much, just being a little too damn smug all the time. 

Now that Lisa thought about it, this was probably why Lisa didn't really have any friends in real life. And after this, she probably wasn't going to have any online either. 

Just as Lisa was starting to type a carefully constructed formal apology, VD finally responded, "Thanks, Lisa. I think I really needed to hear that." 

Lisa let out a sigh of relief. "Yeah, sure. No problem." 

"No, really," VD said, "IRL has been kind of a mess for me. I'm glad I have at least one person who gets it." 

Lisa laughed. "Honestly, SAME. IRL is pretty shit for me, too, but the time we hang out is… unironically, the best part of my week." 

Lisa paused, read what she wrote, and groaned. "That sounded way less pathetic in my head." 

"No, I get it," VD replied. "Real life sucks. Sometimes I wish I could just move. I kind of live in the worst city in the world." 

"Hah," Lisa smirked, "I bet it doesn't top how bad mine is." 

"Oh no, it's bad. Like hell-on-earth bad." 

"That's cute. I’d rather be in hell than in my city." 

"LOL." VD's character emoted a laugh. "Okay, I'm just going to say where I'm from and then you'll understand." 

"Hit me with your best shot." 

"I live in BROCKTON BAY." 

Lisa stared at the screen. Almost automatically, her power flexed, and she knew VD was telling the truth. 

"Speechless, huh?" VD said, triumphant. "Yeah, I live in gang violence and murder capital of the world, Brockton fucking Bay." 

What were the chances? Lisa didn’t have to share the truth, but at this point, why the hell not? "Okay, no joke," Lisa said, "I live in Brockton Bay, too" 

"Really?" 

"Really." 

"What." typed VD. 

Was that a skeptical "what"? Or a shocked "what"? Did VD think Lisa was catfishing her or something? Before Lisa could use her power to figure out, VD said something else: 

"We 100% need to hang out." 

Lisa held her breath. VD believed her. Of course, VD believed her, Lisa felt stupid for doubting her. That said, Lisa really ought to refuse. To come up with an excuse. Lisa was technically a fugitive. Getting close to anyone was a pretty high up on the list of dumb ideas. 

But then what was the point of being a supervillain if you didn't take a few risks? 

With a growing smile, Lisa typed out, "I am so in." 

\--- 

Lisa had the worst power in the world. That was the only explanation for how badly she fucked up. The other option was that she was just a colossal idiot and she refused to even consider that reality. 

"Hah," laughed VD aka Victoria Dallon aka Glory Girl. "You should see the look on your face." 

Lisa closed her jaw and tried not to freak out. They had decided to meet out on the Boardwalk, just outside the biggest clothing store in the city. Certainly not an ideal place for a cape fight to break out with all the civilians around, but then that never stopped anyone in murder capital Brockton Bay. 

Victoria smiled at Lisa. "Okay, I probably should have told you that I'm, y'know," she shrugged, "famous." 

"Aha. Yeah," Lisa said. She needed to compose herself. Victoria didn't recognize Lisa, but she’d get suspicious if Lisa kept spazzing out. And if Victoria actually found out who Lisa was… Lisa swallowed and forced a smile on. "You just surprised me is all. I never would have thought that I was playing with Glory Girl all this time.” That much was true at least. “I’m kind of a fan." 

"A big one? If you want, I can sign something for you." 

"Haha, no it's fine. I don’t want to make things weirds," Lisa said, "It's just… cool to meet you like this." 

Victoria grinned and then in a cartoony southern accent, she said, "Right back at you, partner." 

Lisa stared at her. 

Victoria’s face flushed. "Oh god, I'm sorry," she said. "I don't know why I did that." 

Lisa burst out with a laugh and then pulling herself back together, she affected her own southern drawl: "No worries, beautiful. Let's get this shopping trip on the road." 

Victoria's cheeks were still red, but her grin returned. 

"Come on," she said, and then suddenly she was very close to Lisa, linking arms with her, "I don't know about you, but I need to do a lot of shopping. Some jerkwads ruined my last outfit by dumping paint on it." 

Lisa coughed. “Wow. Yeah. Uh. Fuck those jerkwads.” 

Victoria laughed and Lisa managed a smile. She’d have to buy Victoria something to make up for the other day. The two of them headed into the store, arm-in-arm and wallets at the ready. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad. 

Victoria looked over at Lisa with a grin and bumped shoulders with her. Lisa matched the grin and gave Victoria a bump back. Maybe this would even be fun. 

**Author's Note:**

> This work was gifted to Elle for the PCT Lisa Secret Santa.
> 
> Original Prompt: Lisa accidentally provides a listening ear to an off-Dean Vicky and even more accidentally scores a date with her.


End file.
